Media outlets access enhanced multi-platform content at no charge, with alerts when we have new content on issues or from regions you may select. Once we receive the filled out form below, you'll receive a message with the passcode/s. Welcome!

*These fields are required

*Media Outlet name

*Media Outlet City/State

Contact name

Contact phone

*Email address or fax #

*Media Outlet type

Additional (beyond the state you are located in) content that you would like to receive

Newscasts

PNS Daily Newscast - March 21, 2019

The nation’s acting Defense Secretary is under investigation for promoting Boeing, his former employer. Also on the Thursday rundown: The Trump administration’s spending blueprint being called a “bully budget.” Plus, a call for the feds to protect consumers from abusive lenders.

Fighting Cyber-Terrorism: Attack on Civil Liberities?

May 7, 2012

HARRISBURG, Pa. - A bill before Congress aimed at enhancing cyber-security could leave individuals' personal information exposed to government and corporate misuse, according to Internet freedom advocates. The bill, called CISPA, is in a way a successor to SOPA and PIPA, the anti-piracy measures that were shot down in January after an outcry over censorship concerns. The issue here is privacy.

Rainey Reitman, activism director for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, says that if CISPA is passed ...

"Companies can intercept the communications of everyday Internet users; they can spy on your personal emails, on your instant messages, your text messages, and share that information directly with the government."

Some large companies like Microsoft, IBM and Facebook are in favor of CISPA in part because it would let the government inform companies about cyber-threats more expeditiously. Facebook says it has no intention of sharing sensitive personal information with the government.

Reitman says Facebook's promise isn't enough.

"That is something that Facebook has said it doesn't intend to do. However, I think that's small comfort for those of us who actually have data that is being held by Facebook."

Reitman acknowledges there are threats to America's cyber-security, but she says CISPA has flaws when it comes to civil liberties.

"We don't want hackers getting ahold of Social Security numbers, but we also have to remember that we don't want data to go to the United States government. We have a structure in place that means that if the government wants to get access to certain information, they have to go to a court and get a court order."

Reitman says the House version of CISPA now heads to the Senate where it could be taken up by the third week of May.